


Bathtub Gin

by amieangie



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1920s, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Hospital, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Police, Criminal Masterminds, Dorks in Love, F/M, Falling In Love, Good Uchiha Itachi, Good Uchiha Obito, Haruno Sakura & Yamanaka Ino Friendship, Idiots in Love, Illegal Activities, Inspired by Law & Order: SVU, Single Parents, There will be sex, Uchiha Obito Lives
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:01:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22501375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amieangie/pseuds/amieangie
Summary: Gin was the predominant drink in the United States during the Prohibition-Era 1920's and many variations were created. "Bathtub gin" was developed in response to the poor-quality of alcohol that was available at the time.As gin, abovementioned, was the predominant drink, many variations were created by mixing cheap grain alcohol with water and flavorings and other agents, such as juniper berry juice and glycerin. Because the preferred sort of bottle was too tall to be topped off with water from a sink, they were filled from a bathtub tap.With a widow, a widowed ill mother, a small child and no money, Sakura breakes the laws she never lost sleep over and crosses lines she never drew.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Hatake Kakashi
Comments: 7
Kudos: 26





	Bathtub Gin

**Author's Note:**

> (kids cof I can't cof update this fic if i don't have any cof feedback cof reviews are my life cof)  
> Emily

It was a raining ugly day. The sky was absent of any hint of blue, just a deep, dark shade of gray. If she didn’t look at the clock she could be lost in time, not knowing if it was six in the morning or in the afternoon. The clouds were far from white, matching the sky behind them. 

For a spring morning, the sky sure as hell seemed as far from the warmth it was usual for the season. Her hair looked pale in days like these — she liked it this way. She wished her hair was gray.

Sakura didn't care. She liked the colour gray and she liked rainy days. Something about the way the air shifts, restless, all the clouds running to keep up, the smell of the rain, the ruffling of her hair. She missed having her hair ruffled by her father, so the breeze would have to do it. 

The rain began to pour swiftly outside the cold walls of the hospital. 

Sakura knocked lightly on the door. 

"Tsunade?" she called uncertain. Considering it was the end of a month and a nasty car crash happened seven in the morning, leaving four badly injured, three in a stable condition, one without a scratch — and one casualty. 

She was at the end of her shift, sighing happily after being locked up for 18 hours when the sirens buzzed, loud and bright. 

Everytime the sirens buzzed, her heart skipped a beat. Sakura fucking hated sirens. Tsunade was probably the only person that hated them more than she did — the sight of Jiraya would haunt her forever. 

A truck lost the control over the wet road and crashed onto two cars. The truck driver was the one left unscathed. A child was the casualty. The parents haven't woken up yet to receive the news. The mother left the surgery room only half an hour ago. The father was at the ICU, but stable. Her hands were stiff and the only good thing about the day was the weather. 

And, well, the person that she delivered the news. The fucking hot cop, as Ino liked to call him, was the object of her affection for a while now.

The first time she laid eyes on him she was just leaving the surgery room, shaking off her bloodied gloves and trashing her apron at the nearest bin, leaving the hospital by the back door. She was crying. You lose patients everyday. You learn to cope. But there's always a death or two that shake you off the thrill. This was one of those deaths. 

She left and was about to light a cigarette she stole from the victims pocket — yeah, weird and maybe sick, but he wasn't going to smoke them anyway — when she realised she didn't smoke and she had no lighter. She was kicking at the door when she noticed him. 

He was leaning on a lamp post, a book at his hand and a cigarette between his fingers. He was a hard contrast against the hospital walls. 

Her feet got kind of stuck on the hospital back door from the last kick and she almost lost her ground, but managed to hold her grace and don’t fall straight there. Setting her standart hospital shoe and guaranteeing the door didn’t take too much damage she unfurled her clothes and shaked off the anger of the dead woman’s cigarette choice — Sakura fucking despised cherry cigarette. 

The back of the hospital didn't held any of its front door majesty. No. It was a lot of bricks piled on top of other bricks, no painting, no flashing orange colour neither. It was an weary type of orange — completely unlike Naruto's jacket, the one she poured over her shoulders as she bargained outside the building. 

The floor was a vanishing shade of gray, that was turning more and more between a pale white with dark stains. The ambulances were at a poor position, the logo almost completely faded and the tires were so covered in dirt it was hard to even distinguish the wheels. 

And there, there he was. 

The blue jacket was rolled to his elbows, a dark gray shade shirt was under the jacket, two bottoms popped open revealing a milky skin. His pants were a dark, dark shade of blue that could be black if the light was poor. He had fingerless dark gray gloves and a pale gray hair, almost white, defying gravity as it was nothing, spiking everywhere. He had a scar down his left eye and a surgical mask hanging at his chin, the cigarette finding its way every now and then. 

The book at his hand was just as screaming orange as Naruto's and she almost — almost — blushed when she recognized the cover. 

You can't blame a woman for wanting a distraction during her 20 hour shifts with minor occurrences. After a few months, she didn't feel a rat of shame for reading softcore porn in public (public being her fellow doctors and some nurses. She wasn't kicking in patients doors with dirty, naughty scenes in her hands. Yet.) 

Beside his darling clothing, he was somehow standing out in the dark alley. Maybe it was his mysterious aura or his hair or just her blood shot eyes. 

He was indeed a hot fucking cop and she was standing in front of him without realising. 

"Got fire?" Well put, Haruno. 

He lifted his eyes from the book and his lower face was covered by smoke and some shadows the lamppost cast. (The lamppost. Yeah. The lamp post was to blame on his whole "standing out" in the middle of a dark, sad back of the hospital. Not the way his slender fingers closed around the cigarette nor the way that just his eyes screamed handsome. Or the fact she was horny — blame PMS. But she was washed out of every thought as her dead patience popped on her mind — her cherry cigarette at her fingers. 

She would never admit out loud, but she'd rather lighting years more to ogle him and his ass every time he walked away than to read her porn. He looked like the main character, she admitted only to herself. At night. After a unexpected wet dream. Shit.)

But right at the moment she was caught in his dark orbs and the grief that was still rolling slowly off her eyes. 

"Sure." he said with a pretty smile on his voice. 

She was ready to take the lighter from his hand when he lit the fire in front of him, waiting for her to place the fag on her lips bend her head forward. Once the smoke hit the back of her throat, she stepped back and made her best effort not to cof. The smell of tobacco filled the air and she checked — red filter. 

The box was from cherry cigarettes and she felt now even worse for her patient. She got mad over the woman’s cigarette choice and in the end it was her favourite. And none of this should matter, but she felt like she owned her an apology for that — except she would never be able to.

She advertised her eyes down, but didn't step away from his personal space. She didn't notice she was that close until the puffs of smoke of his own cigarette were directed towards the sky in the sake of not blowing it to her face. 

"Sorry." she murmured. 

"Rough day?" 

He closed his book and put it in his back pocket. _Violence,_ she recognized. 

She couldn't find her voice, the memories of the three hour surgery flooding her mind, so she just nodded. He lowered his eyes to her frame and made a small noise with his tongue, clearing his throat short after. "Sorry I asked. Didn't mean to bribe." he said apologetically. 

"Oh, no." she snapped her head up, eyes still glowing. "No. It's just... Well, rough day..." she tried to swallow the tears. "One of those days..." her lips trembled and she had to place her hand over her forehead and take a shallow breath. "I'm the one who should apologize. Thanks for, uh, the fire." Smooth, Haruno. Blame it on the tears. She turned her back to him when he laid ever so lightly his hand on her shoulder. 

"Want to talk about it?" he sounded uncertain, as if he himself was shocked he said something. 

"Thank you, but... Ok, yes. Maybe. I don't know. It happens sometimes and sometimes it hurts and there's nothing I can do, 'cause I did all I could and even then I wasn't able to save them. Like... I know, I know. People die. Everyday. All the time. Specially in a hospital. But I sometimes wonder if I really did all I could, you know? That maybe, maybe I could've done more and if I hadn't do this and chose to do that, they would be alive." Shockingly enough, she wasn't crying anymore, but she sounded a bit nasal. "Sorry — again. I'm rambling. You just asked out of niceness."

"Maa, I really wanted to know." his eye crinkled a bit and it made her feel at ease.

She took a long drag.

"And I am sorry. I know how it feels." he smiled a bit more, his eyes creasing further. They both took another drag and he spoke while holding the smoke. She was just sucking onto the cigarette and blowing carelessly.

He began to say "There are some days-" 

" _KAKASHI!_ " He cringed. He turned around and both faced a man waving his hand. "Where the fuck have you been? Gai wouldn't shut the fuck up and we have a call at Third with Seventh and here you are reading porn..." he was walking in their direction and trailed off when he saw her. For a moment his brows furrowed but then he shot her a wide grin that dropped flirty. "Oh, hi there. Is this old man troubling a beautiful girl like you?" 

He walked into the light of the lamppost and she noticed he had a scar over his left eye as well, but he had black spiked hair and something soft and childish in his smile, in the middle of the malice he was trying to put in it. She laughed. It was nice to laugh blowing smoke and wiping the track of tears off her face. Maybe she should've been a cop instead of a doctor. 

"Obito!" Kakashi, she deduced, called him out at the same time he rolled his eyes and seemed to apprehend the other man. 

"Oh, no, he is not bothering me at all." Her smile was wide and warm and her big green eyes were shining bright in the middle of her reddened eyes. "He was being just the company I needed." It definitely sounded out more like flirting than she intended, but, then again, in all her years at the hospital she never saw them before, so she probably wouldn't be seeing them again, so slipping a flirty tone wasn't that much of a deal. 

"Well, count on me if you need to." The man — Obito — blinked and she should be outraged — she hated when guys hit on her out of nowhere — but he seemed too sweet. 

"Sorry 'bout that." Kakashi said, and she wasn't sure if he was talking about his partner or her patients or the fact he didn't ask for her number. 

"Drive carefully." she shoot over his arm as he was walking away and the glimpse she took of his face — he was putting the mask back in place — made her insides tingle and then _she_ regretted not asking his number. 

"You've been spending way too many time with Genma." she heard him say to his partner as he slapped the back of his head and then they were gone and her cigarette burnt out to the filter and she was left there, wondering if she would ever, ever meet him again. 

She shook her head and decided that, high probably, not. So she just walked inside and took a deep, long breath before gathering courage to give the news to the family of her patient. 

(He would only admit many, many years later that he couldn't shake the sight out of his mind. She was like a splash on a white, boring canvas. Everything about her screamed life and held promises of better, warmer days, even though she probably didn't knew it. The pink, green and orange blur he saw entering the building put a smile on his face that was hard to shake. He'd never seen someone like that before. She was the complete opposite of him. Her eyes held so much life and her smile touched him like rays of morning sun. He realised too late, when he left the car to walk into the third crime scene that night, and if wasn't even 8 PM, that he didn't know her name.)

* * *

"Tsunade?" She opened the door and was welcomed by a dark office, her superior, — master, teacher, friend, mother — was staring out the window, a bottle in her hand. "I just got out of the surgery." Tsunade left about half an hour ago, after saving two other lifes and checking on the living, save patients. Sakura knew she would be in a bad shape. Losing a kid is always harder than anything else, but she knew the woman would be blaming herself for not being able to do _nothing._ The child arrived dead. "Shizune is almost done and, well..." She didn't want to say it. Don't make me say it, don't make me say it, her brain was crying. Leave it to Ino or Shizune or just leave it, it was pleading. But she knew she had to deliver the news sooner than later. "We had to call the police. Turns out he was drunk." She eyed the bottle again. 

Tsunade walked away from the window and hid the alcohol in a fake drawer. The soon-to-be Vice President of the hospital couldn't be catch by no one but Sakura and Shizune drinking. She knew pretty well the implications, but some days were just too much and this was one of those. More often than she liked to admit, the bottles were her only solace. Her voice wasn't shaking anymore when she spoke. 

"Good, Sakura. Are they here yet?"

"No, not yet."

"Okay." With a sight the circled her table and went to Sakura's direction at the door closed behind her back. "I'll go to meet them."

She made a gesture to open the door, but Sakura didn't move and close it shut again with her back, her arms holding the files in front of her chest, her hair tied up and sweat drying from her temple. 

"I'll go." She said adamantly. 

"What?" The older woman's voice reached a pitch that usually meant bad, bad news to whoever was in the same room.

"I can smell the booze in you." She swallowed and finished before all the courage left her body and sunk to cringe under her superior's hard honey eyes, circled by deep bags. "I'll go."

She was surprised when the woman gave in without a fight. She just sat in her chair and looked out of the window again, waving a hand without turning. 

Things were bad.

* * *

"Sakura"

"Hum"

"I — I really, really don't like this. It is... you know what I mean. You know what happens —"

"I know. I know what would happen. But, Ino, I need this. We need this. Just hear me out."

"It is too risky"

"I know, Ino, I know. But we just can't anymore."

"We both have jobs..."

"That don't pay shit. Why the hell would we be having this bloody chat with _candles?_ That's not the romantic night I was expecting when I finally lit candles. It was intended to fuck and not realise how fucked we are."

"Woah, girl, your mouth is dirtier than this — this bathtub"

"Don't offend the bathtub! She's going to be our best friend for God knows how long."

"First: _she?_ Does the bathtub has a name now as well, Sakura? And I can tell you precisely for how long: until we get fucking arrested."

"We won't."

"You don't know?"

"Yes, I do."

"You don't!"

"I do!" She sighed, trying to low her voice. "Ino, please, I need you."

"Yeah, I know. If you didn't need me, would you help me still?"

"What, girl? Of course. Why wouldn't I? We're in this together." Her voice died and the candles casted shadows in her face that made her look ten years older. She felt ten years older. 

"Do you miss him?"

"I always will."

"I miss him too."

"Which?"

"Both, Sakura. Them both."

"Do you believe in hell?"

"No and neither do you."

"Maybe I do... This — this life we're having, well, maybe hell was better."

"Don't say stuff like that!" Ino grabbed Sakura's hand in hers and placed them in her lap, squeezing them. "We're not at hell. I know sometimes it might sound like hell when we hear the neighbor next door having loud, weird sex—"

"Or when the garbage truck decides to stop by at 2 AM—"

"When Tsunade stumbles drunk in the stairs—"

"When Tsunade break things after stumbling in the stairs—"

"When the other neighbor does that yelling slash praying scary thing—"

"When your son cries—"

"When Mrs. Couch decides to pretend she can sing—

"God, Frank Sinatra cringes."

"When you sing, as well—

"Bite me."

They both laughed, small, breathy laughs that could be mistaken by sighs, but they still had each other. 

"Does he cry that loud?"

"Oh, he does. Especially when you are at work and have no clue on how make him stop crying. Ino, he is a nightmare." The blonde woman was about to hide her face in her hands when Sakura lifted her chin. "And the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Even when he pissed in my new shirt."

"That shirt was horrendous. He did you a favour." 

Sakura just rolled her eyes. 

"Will you hear me out now?" Ino simply nodded, eyes facing the ground the second Sakura let go of her. "We can do it. You are an expert, you are even _respected_ in your line of work. I am lucky to have you, not the other way 'round." When the blond locks covered her left eye when she lifted her head, her mouth already open to speak, Sakura held a finger in front of her. "Shh. I know you were about to self depreciate yourself again. Ino, it kills me to see you like that. Don't you miss your old self back?"

"The not widow slash not yet a single mother slash working at a bus stop's coffee shop to pay bills and not having money for the train?" She lifted one pale eyebrow in defiance. "Yeah, I miss it."

"I even miss your sassy comments."

"Not gonna let you forget you said that."

Sakura just settled in rolling her eyes again. "Please, look at us. Look at your father, your mother, your son. Look at my mom and at me and at Tsunade. We can't..." Her voice died and all the fire left her eyes, leaving her staring blankly at the ground, hollow eyes. She had to swallow twice before being able to speak. "Did I tell you about what Tsunade told me this morning?" Ino shook her head, her blue orbs big, so big it reflected on the walls. "Mom is dying."

They just sat there in silence. Ino felt she was about to throw up at any minute. They were truly in hell. Sakura's fiance and Ino husband's killed themselves when the Market Broke. They weren't the only ones. For months, she hesitated in walking around tall buildings, fearing that one corpse could be at her feet any moment or a body would shove her to the ground. She didn't see their bodies, but Sakura did. She performed the autopsy. Tsunade tried to force her to take a week, just a day off, but she refused. She buried herself so hardly into work she wasn't there to deliver Ino's baby. She cried the whole night. She decided then to name the child "Itachi" even if she hated Sasuke and the kid was absolutely a hundred percent _not_ alike the Uchihas, it seemed to soothe Sakura's heart. The baby had blonde hair and piercing blue eyes — just like his mother and father. 

It is funny, in a really twisted way, how things turned out to be. Sakura was finally setting down with Sasuke and she was happily married with the last person she thought she would: Naruto. 

So they both were left widowed, as to match Sakura's mom. 

"Isit becauseof yourfather?" Ino blurted out, the words crumbling atop one another. 

"What?" Sakura's voice was sweet, like honey dropping into warm milk when she was a child and couldn't sleep. Sakura usually was more like a hurricane than a soft breeze, but her own weather was weighing her down lately. 

"Is it because of your father?" For some reason, their voices weren't above a whisper anymore. 

"Why would that be?" that was a bitterness, like green lemon salted in open wounds. 

"Because he was a cop."

"You think — wait, let me catch up. You think I want to do something illegal for us to survive because the bastard of my father is a cop?" both her eyebrows were raised, about to vanish in her now-to-long fringe. "Hum" Sakura looked up, thinking about it and when she returned her eyes, her gaze was full of a devilish malice and a small grin planted on her lips. It was rare to see Sakura smiling this days. "I bet shrinks would have an heart attack analysing this, but, well, no. I guess. But the fact he is a cop works for us."

"How so, Sakura?" she was tired. Deadly tired. Her voice was deadpan and emotionless. Being a mom sure mess with your hormones.

"Because I know a lot on how they catch criminals, so I know exactly what to do so when won't get caught."

"That's why you're so confident?"

"No. I am confident because my best friend is a beast at chemistry — which I will never understand why you chose such a boring profession — and I am a incredible medic whose payment is more shitty than shit and" she said profusely "we have Tsunade."

"Tsunade?"

"Do you know someone that drinks more than she does?"

 _Your ex boyfriend_ was the answer that lingered in the air, but there is no need to poke the dead. Literally. "Tsuna is our best shot. And I am also. You are. We are! Jeez!" Sakura was laughing, truly laughing. She had that wide smile on her face that began to show a few age marks. They didn't just feel 10 years older, they were indeed getting older. The economy was broken and she had heard about bathtub gins and bootleggers. Hell, even homebrew. Everyone had their needs. Mouths to feed, kids to grow, bills to pay. The Estate was dead, but the money was pretty much alive and killing more and more each day. Ino knew Sakura was right. "Ino, you can't deny it. We are fit for it!"

"But how — how are we—?"

"The law has a huge loophole. Well served is Wheeler—"

"The Wheeler, the politician, the one who basically created the Prohibition and he is at your list of 'Ways To Go'? We're getting helped by the man that screw us?!"

"Oh, Ino, shit, no. Well, yes, but no. Here. I took from the newspaper last week."

A crumpled piece of paper had a dark fat line saying " **The man behind the Prohibition** " and had a picture of a middle aged man who looked deathly wealth. She recognized the newspaper. It was almost a 'Resistance'. It butched politicians and the police, showing here and there how they weren't serving the people, but actually ruining them. 

_"_ _The person largely responsible for writing the Volstead Act in 1919 was Wayne Wheeler, head of the powerful, pro-dry Anti-Saloon League. Wheeler was instrumental in persuading Congress to vote for the law."_

The rest of the paper had a few words to be distinguished, but most of it was illegible because the sheet was wet and torn. 

Sakura was looking at her with the same enthusiasm you see in a child at Christmas morning and the mixed with the amusement of seeing the gifts, but the mischief of those child that sneak upon his parents and was already opening the gifts. Sakura was a mix of that, bubbling with excitement and at the same time looking diabolical, knowing she overcame law itself. 

"You see, he had to allow some loopholes in order the Congress approve the law and those were that licensed doctors are permitted to prescribe whiskey, other distilled spirits (from government-licensed distilleries) and wine as treatments. The law also allows the manufacture and sale of wine used in sacraments or other religious rituals by rabbis, priests, “ministers of the gospel” and their designees. Both loopholes are up to abuse. We don't have the excuse of religion, but sure as hell a doctor can manage. A doctor and her best friend, the incredible pharmacologic!" She finished her sentence with her arms wide open as if showing Ino to a public, letting them know how amazing the object of her drawing attention. 

"Thought you said my job was boring."

"And I also said I'm incredible medic — which I am and which your job actually is, until it makes the difference."

"I make difference! I am the one —"

"Ino, calm down, I'm just messing with you."

"I know, I know." This time Ino succeed on hiding her face in her hands and let out in a strangled voice. "I am just hungry." she sound defeated. Sakura put a hand on her shoulder and leveled her head to meet her eyes.

"And that's precisely why we're doing it. I am worried about you. I am worried about us."

"Does Tsunade... you know, your mom... does she...?"

Sakura shook her head, trying not to look so weighed by the situation, but when your mother is dying and you can't pay for the treatment, something inside you shatter. "It's too expensive. I don't if even with this we will be able to — " she never finished the sentence and Ino didn't need her to. 

Cupping her cheek, she gave the woman in front of her the most reassuring smile she could come up with and said solemnly "We're doing this."

* * *

When she reached the hall, her eyes burned into gray hair, spiking out the receptionist table. The girl, Aline?, Barbara?, was openly flirting with him - and it wasn't forbidden at all, but Sakura felt like biting her hand of his arm. 

And that's what she did. 

"Thank you, girl. I take it from here." her voice came hard and inflexible, a perfect portrait Tsunade would be proud of. The girl said something and turned around to give him a smile flashing with white teeth and mischief. Sakura felt like she could go punching something. Which is completely ridiculous. She didn't even know the man. He lit her cigarette once and she was, what?, jealous over the secretary? Times like these she understood why Tsunade drank. 

Despite her sour mood, he gave her a smile and her face broke onto one without her permission. 

"Hi, there."

"Hey." 

"How are you?" angry, hungry, tired, grieving. 

"I'm fine, just a bit tired." tired is okay to use in social occasion. Depressed wasn't. "You?"

"Yeah, tired as well. My shift is about to end." The smile on his voice just made hers bigger and, talking to this stranger, small talk it is, in the middle of the cold hall of the hospital, brewing booze back at her place, she felt the beginning of what could be a spark of contentment. 

"Sorry to ask you to come here so late."

"It is pretty early, actually." When she just furrowed he eyebrows in confusion he gave a soft chuckle and boy "It is past seven already." he pointed to a clock with his finger and she thought 

"Jesus, I've been working for 18 hours now?!"

"Eighteen?" his voice was shocked. Apparently, she thought out loud. He whistled. "That's a lot of time. How are you even standing?"

"Duty calls." they laughed and she wanted to dread the subject as much as possible. "So, where is your partner?" his smile dropped just a millimeter and she could see a shadow of disappointment cross his eyes before settling onto resignation.

"Obito, you mean?" The smile on his voice was vanishing and she was caught in the sight. 

"Yeah, I guess. Short black hair, not taller than you, a laugh that reminds me of cute kids running around, bad flirtation?"

"Cute kids?" Amusement was back with on of his eyebrows lifted. 

"Yes!" he laughed, she laughed, man he is hot. "He has a cute kid smile and a very terrible kid's laugh."

"Why a very terrible kid? Can it be both cute and terrible?"

"Oh, yes, it can. Lucky you Itachi isn't here today. He would do everything he could to rip your mask off" as so would I "and pull your hair" as I would gladly "and maybe try to steal your gun. Or your handcuffs, at least" not necessarily onto this, but could do.

"He really sounds like a nightmare." he ran a hand through his hair and if his intention was to settle it, he just made the exact opposite. 

"He really, really is." she knew she probably looked like an idiot, almost giggling at a law enforcement figure, but she was doing her best to don't touch his arms and finish the flirt cycle.

"How old is he?"

"Three and a half."

"Woah, they are demons when they're over two and less than, I don't know, eighteen or so." 

"You have a child?"

"Uh, no, a friend of mine has a daughter. She is lovely, but she is a little devil."

"Well, aren't they all?"

"So, is he yours?"

"Oh, no! He is my best friend's son. He just hangs around here sometimes when she uses the lab."

"She's a doctor too?" no, but she's hot, and I am too tired to feel insecure about Ino not even being here.

"She's a pharmacist, but she comes here once in a while to test some things and drop a few meds."

"It is rare to see a woman as a medic."

"Rarer than you think. It is hard to survive in a mostly all men place and everyone thinks you're a nurse."

"You don't look like a nurse." he was tilting his head to the side and seizing her up. Again, she should feel angry, but she took a quick glance herself. Today, his shirt was buttoned to his wrists, his fingerless gloves were now just gloves and he had the jacket off, the shirt tightly crawling his biceps and, if she tried hard enough on the right light, she could see some shapes of his abs. His neck was exposed, the collar unbuttoned, but his face was still covered with the white mask. 

"I know! But apparently woman aren't allowed to be more than housewives." she shot a dirty glance in the direction of two doctors that just loved make fun of her behind her back and hit on her on her face. _Assholes._

"Those two?" he pointed with his chin in the direction of the fuckers. She nodded. They noticed the pair staring at them. Sakura was burning a hole at their back and she didn't care in the slightest. "Do you know which car is their? I can give them a ticket."

"A ticket? The car is parked." she half giggled, mirth on her eyes. 

"Well, speed limits ticket are ruled out, but I can always fine them for being assholes with an incredibly beautiful doctor I met just other day, smoking in the back. She had those really big green eyes and an orange jacket, that, somehow, matched her pink hair. I just didn't catch her name. Fancy knowing her?" 

Sakura beamed and lean herself on the desk full of piles at her back, holding the file of her case against her chest. "Maybe I do know her." she said, serious. She was gathering courage to ask his number, his address, if he needed a check up, if he was single —

But apparently her serious tone mislead him. 

"Sorry." he reached behind his head and scratched the back of his neck, looking away. "I shouldn't have said that. You are working and I—"

"She was talking to me other day just about a police officer she met. She didn't gave me many details, but she mentioned she forgot —" now or never, girl "to ask for his number."

"That seems unfair." her face crumbled. Shit. That's why she never hits on any one. The word "sorry" was about to slip out her lips when he spoke. "He doesn't even know her name, but she's trying for his number?"

"Well, life ain't fair." her grin was full and she knew her cheeks might be rosy, but in her remains of shyness, she managed not running away and cursing herself. Apparently, he was attracted to her too. Or just wanted to know her name. She wished for the former. 

"Well, let's settle this way —"

" _KAKASHI!_ "

" _FOREHEAD!_ "

They turned each to a direction. Him, towards the door, where a man in, wait, was that _green_?, Jesus, a green jumpsuit was walking in his direction, a wide smile that seemed to almost drop out his face, his teeth shining. Coming from the back door, was Ino. And Itachi. And —

Her heart sank. 

"Look, I — I am sorry, but —"

"I am sorry, but —" They turned to each other at the same time. She managed a small smile at his warm eyes. 

"I have to brief you on why we called you guys here —"

"Gai just did."

"A truck driver — Gai — whom — what?"

"Gai" he pointed at the man with that horrendous jacket "He filled me in just now." Wait, what, how? She was the one to tell them. Well, a cop probably can ask around 

— while his partner is flirting shamelessly. "I have to go."

"Yeah, me t— Wait." The sirens were buzzing outside. Her mouth fell open. Shit. If Tsunade ever finds out 

— which she probably would, since she was coming down the stairs.

 _"KAKASHI!"_ Gai, apparently, yelled at the top of his lungs and she was sure the deaf lady at the third floor heard it. "We 'gonna lose him."

Kakashi, then, was pulled by another guard that came out of nowhere and waved at her over his shoulder — Obito — while dragging him out. He manage to mouth "I'm sorry" before the chaos flooded the hall, with all the lights and yelling cars. 

The patient _ran away._

Nice one, Haruno. 

She turned around and her name was just about to be yelled so, so angrily (the lady's next three generation at the third floor would hear it) but it died on Tsunade lips as she took Ino and the visitors in. 

Sakura walked over them, Itachi looking at everywhere, in awe, Ino with too big dark circles and too skinny cheeks and, the image that broke her heart any and every where. If sickness needed a image for its synonym it would be her.

"Hi, mom."

* * *

"Just trust me."

"Sakura..." was said in a warning tone. 

"Calm down!"

"You almost gave me a heart attack when I saw you talking to that cop! Girl, have my hair gone white? Do you know that —"

"It is possible for your hairs to turn white when faced with too strong emotions, as happened with Marie Antoinette when she found out she was going to be decapitated? Yes, Ino. I was the one who told you that." Sakura said rolling her eyes, as she adjusted the blood samples, labeling the other ones. 

"The point" Ino pointed at her with a syringe "is that I almost fucking died. For God's sake. The damn gin is there, going all nice and smooth, _hidden_."

"It's not that hidden, it's in the bathroom." she was discarding old needles and putting some poop-pots, as Itachi named them, on the refrigerator. She was pretty glad she didn't handle this part of the health care. Even though a guy's — a dead guy — stomach exploded in the middle of an autopsy. Gases. He just blew up and in that moment she knew she wasn't up to deal with poop in a regular basis, which was a slap on her face every time she had to change Itachi. 

"Would you stop acting like it is normal?" Ino was making tests in the pee-pots (Itachi) and looked over to Sakura with one big ass glass, that made her eye twenty times bigger and the sight was both hilarious and scary. 

"It is normal to have a bathtub in a bathroom!" she was going through the blood bags, picking up ten of them and looking for a proper cart. "This is a mess."

"Sakura, sod off. Fuck." she took her gloves off and lowered the glass, moving around the table to catch a blood sample. "I don't know if we can keep doing this."

"Ino" Sakura pointedly said, only a bum of pink hair visible — she was crouched going through the carts at the bottle of one of the tables, dropping some gloves at her head, as she accidentally bumped into a box. — don't break anything — "We just started. We're not into this for two weeks!"

"Time enough to get arrested." Ino crouched beside her and handed her the proper cart she was looking for — thanks — and began analysing the blood sample while taking notes.

"If we were caught now, we can excuse it as ourselves." she banged her head into a open fridge door — shit — watch this big forehead, would you? — oh, fuck you _oinc oinc_ — _oinc_ me one mother time and I kick you out — and I come back with my credential — the fuck are— oh, found it. She kept rummaging at the bottom of the fridge who's door she hit her face square and found the IVs she was looking for. "I am making the prescriptions -"

"You _what?_ " With a shriek, she dropped her notes and nearly knocked a microscope. 

"For the fifteenth time: calm down! We need those prescriptions." she closed the door with her hips and opened the next one with the tip of her feet. "Just sharing a credential isn't the same as — where are the corns?" she was frowning at the almost empty fridge.

"You brought — you — ya" now the microscope fell and she barely caught it midair. "You brought the ingredients 

_— found them_

_here?_ To the hospital?”

"Yeah." Sakura shrugged

"And with alcohol." she shaked a bottle, poorly holding the box with the bags and IVs in her right thigh that was propped up a steel table, her back holding the fridge door open. "That's the best part of working here. We can even stash our stuff here!" The door closed with a loud thoumb. Sakura placed the box on one of the tables and began to arrange the things inside. 

"We're doomed. That's it. We're over. We're dead. Oh my God" Sakura caught Ino by the wrists and took her hands of her face. The woman was about to cry. 

"Ino" She kept her eyes closed, shaking her head. "Ino!" Her face was turned and her eyes closed causing a ugly frown. "Pig!" Finally, she was met with a deathly glare. "Stop. Stop overthinking. If someone ifs to fall, it would be me."

"That's nonsense, Forehe—"

"Swallow the Forehead." Was said with a pointy finger. "Hey, _I_ am the doctor. _I_ am the one writing the prescriptions. We're doing this at my place—"

"We share the place—"

Sakura shook her head "It's in my name." she held Ino by her shoulder and shook her. "We are going to be okay and if we don't, you will. I need to take care of you, Ino. You don't worry about me. If something ever, ever goes wrong, I will go to the hell and back to make sure it won't fall over you."

"But, Sakura, and your mother?"

"I am doing this for her too. Ino, it would be easy for me to walk away. Leave ma, turn from Tsunade, turn from you and Ita. I could be a coward like my dad and just vanish and start somewhere else when things get too rough. But I am not him." The distaste was full in her face. "I won't quit. I am here to stay."

"And risk everything?" Ino was halfway pleading and halfway agreeing to it. 

"I've got nothing, but you. I'd risk anything." 

A warm smile lighted up her face and the blonde couldn't help but smiling back. Ino turned to leave. "So..." she was getting out of the door, with a file in hand. "What about the hot cop, uh?"

She never heard the answer, as she closed the door at Sakura's face, just in time to avoid a small book.

* * *

"OH, MY GOD, OFFICER UCHIHA JUST GOT _SHOT!"_

At that, Kakashi slumped out of the table he had passed out about thirty minutes ago, half seated, with his back still in his chair, but his head hung and his arms thrown over the table. He looked more like a ragged doll than a cop. And he was drooling. 

The man was known and feared. The worse tugs knew him and feared him. He had quite a reputation. "The youngest police officer of the century" (well, yeah, he was getting that old — but this title makes him look decrepit. No one seemed to remind it was at the end of the 80's, but as people looked at him, it seemed impressive such an young man with that much of a reputation. 

But it sometimes scares women at bars.)

The so called prodigy, son of the legend that Sakumo Hatake was a man that's seen war, fought in it, came home victorious. And, yet, Kakashi low key dropped the armed forces and decided to go on a more civilian duty. He was tired of the massacres. 

If his country needed him, if another war exploded, he'd be there for his nation, without batting an eyelash. 

But war took its tool on him. Obito fought with him. There they were, his asses freezing, in the front lines, living poorly into trenches, their comrades rotting along the line, a single canter passing hand by hand. He'd seen much more death than he liked to. He caused much more death than he ever wished. Some nights, he would still wake up feelings his hands soaked in blood and hearing the bombs exploding nearby. He remembered dragging their bodies, missing limbs either following in a close trait or simply gone. He lost his eye, for fuck's sake. Obito got half of his face blasted. 

They all had their battle scars. Some deeper, some invisible, some only appeared at sweated temples and nightmares. 

But now, almost ten years after the end of the war, he was sitting in a quiet office downtown, plastering his fingers in doughnuts he didn't like and coffee too weak for his taste. After the suicides, the city went crazy. The gangsters now owned the city. Not just the city, but the whole country. The Prohibition Law was the most pathetic choice of the government in the past millennium. All it did was worsen what was already fucked up. They gave more power to those who operated in the shadows. Now, the shadows were cast in the whole town, glued to the floor and sneaking into houses. Shenanigans roared to life with such strength that couldn't be stopped, any more. 

They worked, day and night, trying to cut every loose tie they could find. But every time they slashed a root, two trees came to life. And that wasn't the option of simply going to the real root of the problem. There wasn't one. Not a single one. There were unaccountable. It came out of control. No matter how much they hunt and catch the gangster, there was always another one nearby just waiting to take his place. 

And, now, normal people were doing it. Bootleggers, brew beer, bathtub gin, homemade wine. The citizens took onto themselves the task of this route of survival. The economy hasn't been so shitty since God knows when. War destroyed families — but the remains that were still alive needed to survive, and, in order to survive in this world, you take whatever you can get. And if moms and paps decided to take the matter onto their own hands, how was he to blame them?

Would you kick a street dog that stole the rest of the fillet you let laid on the plate? Would you blame it for trying to survive?

But the cases were daily and every decision the government took was just making things worse. He lost account on the number of dead, already. 

But at the "ohmygodofficeruchihajustgotshot" Kakashi fell not elegantly hard on the floor, his hands on his weapon in record time, fingers already on the trigger, before even opening his eyes. 

Quite an image: Kakashi Hatake slumped on the floor, his hair just the definition of a mess, drool drying on the corner of his mouth, heavy eyelids and pointing a gun precisely at his on table, flatly ass on the floor.

Obito's laugh was the first that reached his ears. 

When he opened his eyes, the whole bullpen was bent over themselves in a chore of laughter.

And the chaos was instated. 

Kakashi truly contemplated shooting the wall just for the commotion, but decided against it. Didn't they have anyone to interrogate? False leads to fall? Speed tickets? Hit on pretty doctors?

"You should — you should seeyourface" Obito nearly shouted. 

"I think I'm gonna pass out!" Genma said over a boisterous laugh. 

Kakashi simply rolled his eyes and stood up. Apparently, the boss wasn't in, for he wouldn't —

No, no. Scratch that. The boss was at his office drying tears from his eyes, his mustache vibrating while he laughed. 

"I'm gonna order a painting of it and place in my living room."

"Dude, place it across town."

"I want one too!" 

He didn't even know who was shouting anymore, just that he was beginning to get really fucking pissed.

"Haha, very funny, children. Done?"

"Ow, Hatake

— apparently not

"Are you getting that decrepit, old man? Did you break a rib? Lost your teeth?"

That guy, he couldn't actually remember his name, but he looked just like a rat. A skinny, annoying rat. Types like this don't last a year. 

"Old man, seems like the age finally caught up on you, uh?"

This one was Ebisu? Kotetsu? Raido?

 _— good one, Izuma_ someone said, patting the guy in the back. Ah. Izuma. Fuck it. 

"Woah, kids, calm down—"

"Seems like the office has made you soft, old man" the first man said in a boost of laughter. 

Obito and Genma were still breathless from how much they were laughing — even Boss didn't say a word. 

Just as he was about to admit the hilarity of the situation the annoying pets — as he called the newbies — began to bark their nonsense shit. 

Lines of "old man" — if those two words were people, they'd be seven feet underground — "getting soft", "too old for the job", "losing his grip", and shit like that. 

But what put the last pin in the coffin was a blurred "And that's how his dad ended, useless and pathetic."

He couldn't find the one that spoke, but as it came from the direction of the stairs, he shoot the adjacent wall. 

The office went dead quiet. 

No one dared to move. 

Kakashi aimed and hit the wall, a small hole, just above one of the few pictures in the bullpen. 

He knew Boss would start to shout any second now. He didn't give a shit. He ran his eyes through the crowd and found the owner of the damned "joke" about his father. 

He pointed the gun at his face. 

The whole office came to life. Gasps and feet dragging filled the air. 

"Kakashi" Gai's voice came from his right, cautious. He didn't care.

He settled the trigger. The small sound filled the building as deafening as a thousand birds chirping. The man, Danzo, was it?, a museum piece that was a former soldier as well, looked at him with his one eye wide. The other one was covered in bandages as was his left arm. He didn't go to field ever since the war. He was just kept there because the former sargent had a soft spot for him. Kakashi couldn't give a shit even if he wanted to. 

With his arm stretched, the gun pointed to the man's face, in the middle of a circle made of the people that stepped back, no one dared to breath. 

Kakashi pulled the trigger then.


End file.
